Ryder to the rescue for Glasgow

The Herald reveals


Published on 26 Aug 2010

Kevin Ferrie

Tom Ryder, the England under-19 captain, is to join the Glasgow Warriors squad for the forthcoming season.

The 6ft 6in, 16½st 25-year-old who has represented the country of his birth at every age-group level up to under-21s but is also Scottish qualified, is to move from England’s Guinness Premiership side Saracens on loan.

A product of the Leicester Tigers academy who has also played provincial rugby in New Zealand with Taranaki, the lock forward joined Saracens five years ago and quickly established himself as a regular member of their squad. He has made close to 100 appearances for the club.

His recruitment will provide vital experienced cover for Al Kellock, the Glasgow and Scotland captain who is expected to be out of action at least until the autumn Tests following two knee operations over the summer.

That should offer considerable relief to the management with the head coach Sean Lineen having expressed frustration and concern about the over-stretched nature of resources ahead of last week’s warm-up meeting with Sale Sharks in light of what is an injury crisis at the club.

At that stage, he said he was hoping to recruit an experienced scrum-half and a lock to bolster his team in the short term. The first part of that was achieved when Sale were persuaded to release Will Cliff, a 21-year-old scrum-half, who made his Warriors debut as a second-half substitute against the Sharks in that friendly.

It goes some way to explaining why the club is expressing its satisfaction with its squad going into the new season, in spite of what seems to be a significant discrepancy between its size and that of their Scottish rivals Edinburgh when the official Magners League guide was issued this week.

The guide showed Edinburgh as having the biggest squad in the competition with 49 players, while Glasgow’s was among the smallest with only 36 listed.

Since both operate on similar playing budgets, that invited the interpretation that Glasgow have paid a significant price for the increased value of their players, who now form the nucleus of the national side. They are the Scottish players who can command the highest wages and, by definition, that has meant some high-value players have left while less money is available to bring in new talent.

However, a spokesman for Glasgow Warriors explained: “In addition to the players named in the Magners League media guide, the Glasgow Warriors squad for the coming season features seven elite development players.

“Head coach Sean Lineen is happy with both the size and the balance of the squad for the forthcoming season.”

The squad listed by Edinburgh includes all nine of their elite development players so the more accurate comparison is that Glasgow’s squad now numbers 46 players, when Ryder, Cliff and the Canadian trialist Chauncey O’Toole are now included.

This article was originally posted on 26-Aug-2010, 06:37 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Aug-2010, 06:38.